On the Level: New Workbench Book Teaches You How to Fish

Some people say I have a “workbench problem” because I’ve built so many of them. It’s more accurate to say instead that I have a “problem with workbenches.”

After teaching in schools all over the country, I found the benches to be almost universally bad. The students and I would struggle to perform even basic tasks on these tables with some metal bits – they didn’t deserve the title of “workbench.”

So after years of research and building benches, we published my first book: “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use” (Popular Woodworking Books). That book sought to cure the world’s problems, with plans for two ancient benches (one French, one English), plus some rules on materials, bench dimensions and vises.